Is/was there a word or phrase from your office that made you cringe?

[True Dough]

Here are some examples:

[yankeepants]

1. "Going forward" We had a coffee drinking game for those meetings on that buzz phrase.

[happybird]

7. I despise "going forward"

Ugh.

[DonaldsRump]

2. Lord alive: what does it say about a poor fellow like me that pretty much uses all of these!? nt

[Irish_Dem]

3. We'll circle back to you on that.

[ret5hd]

12. With some teamwork we can help him...

to raise the bar.

[Irish_Dem]

20. Gonna have to think outside the box cause God knows he needs a paradigm shift.

[True Dough]

4. Definitely

time for you to think outside the box!

[DonaldsRump]

6. I loved "it is what it is" until trump stole it me from me (and many others)

[Laelth]

14. You have a job. You get paid.

You spout well-tested, corporate, HR bullshit, and you get paid to do so. I hope you are paid well.

I don’t blame you.



-Laelth

[bottomofthehill]

5. Take it off line

In other words, you are afraid to say it in front of the group.

[mzmolly]

8. Kudos.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. At the end of the day.... bandwidth.... circle back.... god I'm glad I retired.

[Mr.Bill]

10. At the hospital where I volunteer

the big one last few years was "Closed loop communication".

That means if someone tells you to do something, like "Move these books to the other shelf", you don't just say "Okay", you say "Okay. I will move these books to the other shelf".

They built it into the one-day orientation all new hires and volunteers have to attend.

[marble falls]

11. There's a list ...

Duty Roster
Mission Statement
Punch in
Mandatory Overtime
Mandatory Monday Morning Meeting

[Mr.Bill]

13. This one will disturb some folks, but when I sold cars the industry-wide term for

making an especially large profit on a car was known as "Ripping their heads off".

[True Dough]

23. Ever heard of the term "pinner"?

I worked for a car dealership briefly almost 10 years ago and they would force their salespeople to work "pinners" at least one Saturday a month. It was an extended shift: come in for 9 a.m., go home at 9 p.m.

Because we were paid commission on the vehicles we sold -- not an hourly wage -- there was no guarantee you'd make anything extra for the additional four hours you spent at work.

Such B.S.

[Mr.Bill]

27. No, we used to call that Bell-to-Bell.

As in opening bell to closing bell. Whenever anyone asked when we close, the answer was "When the last deal is done". Many times I was there two hours after closing with a customer that walked on the lot five minutes before we "closed".

[True Dough]

29. How many years did you stick it out?

I could only hack it for five weeks. Then I quit. Just not my environment.

"Tunes and balloons" on Saturdays was another cringe thing. We had to fill the balloons with helium and tie them to the vehicle antennas and crank up the radio in the showroom.

One time a salesperson got a customer into the finance office. When the deal closed, the finance person came into the staff office and described how he had was just barely able to approve the customer for long-term high-interest financing due to his poor credit.

"You've got him welded in place for the next five years," the sales manager said. Then they high-fived one another. Made me feel disgusted.

[Mr.Bill]

30. I did it for about three years off-and-on spread out over five years

at three different lots. The last place I worked was a small town used lot same owner for nearly 30 years. Very nice people to work for, treated their customers well. Very different kind of place. Unfortunately the owner died and the place folded up not long after that. First place I worked was a huge Chevrolet dealer. The sold 200 cars a month and the place was a real meat grinder. My son-in-law was a manager there so he helped me get started in the business and kept the assholes from messing with me. I made good money but the commute was a 130 mile round trip. I only lasted there about six months.

Worst thing about being a car salesman is you have to work with a bunch of car salesmen.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

15. OMG, LOTS of those expressions! How they made me cringe!

[Cirque du So-What]

16. I have a lot on my plate

Translation: a shitload of work that someone else doesn’t want is headed your way.

[skypilot]

17. "I'm going to need you to...

...go ahead and..."

Also, "pivot" and "deep dive".

[True Dough]

24. "Deep dive" always gets on my nerves!

When someone says it, I want to tell them to take a long walk on a short pier.


Also "unpack". As in, "There's so much to unpack in that statement."

[Under The Radar]

18. Where is the word "proactive" ?

[True Dough]

25. You just added it!

And it's a worthwhile addition too.

[LSparkle]

19. Workaround

Which means something doesn’t work but you have to take extra (time consuming and frustrating) steps to make it work anyway.

[Laffy Kat]

21. All of the above along with "rock star"

If I hear any of MBA vernacular I immediately turn off and stop listening.


On edit: I thought of two more: Huddle, as in, "let's take five minutes for a short huddle"; and, Courageous Conversation.

[True Dough]

26. One place I worked used "champion"

Select employees would be given extra responsibilities in certain areas and they'd be called "________ champions", depending on which group they were leading. No extra pay or benefits, just the title.

[Laffy Kat]

28. What a disincentive!

"You're such a champion we're going to pile on more work without compensation" and we are supposed to beam with pride?

I can sure tell I'm getting close to retirement, LOL.

[mpcamb]

22. I've been mining our own customer base for "low-hanging fruit."

[Clash City Rocker]

31. How has this thread gone on so long without this being posted?

One of Weird Al’s best.

[rownesheck]

32. Years ago

at a convention for Blockbuster Video franchisees, the buzz phrase was "new news". I wanted to vomit when I heard that.

[True Dough]

33. Well,

Blockbusters is old news these days. Gone bye-bye.